Parish/District | Barrow upon Humber/North Lincs |
Location | Barrow on Humber Market Place (junction of Hight St and Green Ln) |
Category | Market cross |
National Grid Ref | TA 07081 21082 |
Designation | Listed II |
Stone type | Limestone |
Refs | Davies, D S,1915, Lincs Notes & Queries, Vol XIII No.5, p. 131 |
Visits | DS/HH: 12 Mar 2012 |
Barrow market cross (also known as the Butter Cross) with a single square step (or bench) 2.02m x 1.99m with 0.46m visible above modern ground level. Old photographs show rather more of the base.
On this broad step there is a two stage square cross base (or possibly one socket stone on top of another?) The lower stone is 0.65 x 0.66m square and 0.44m high above the step – then a second stone on top 0.65m x 0.66m by 0.38m high.
A fragment of a big square shaft is in situ c. 0.44 x 0.45m square by 0.66m high – you can see another 0.1m of it set in the socket where it is broken away. Lots of lead repairs and exposed lead visible. There is a groove cut up one side of base and shaft – reportedly for a late 19C gas supply pipe to a gas lamp fed from Barrow’s own gas works in St Chad (see photos). There’s lots of graffiti on step and shaft.
There is also something looking remarkably like a medieval cross base with part of a shaft in the churchyard of Holy Trinity. Davies (1915) includes it as a cross, however, this is listed as: Sundial in churchyard. 1731 by James Harrison, perhaps re-using parts of medieval churchyard cross. Limestone ashlar. Square on plan. Stepped 2-course base, chamfered tapered shaft with moulded capital, bronze dial and gnomon. (see photo below)
It no longer has its bronze dial and gnomon!
There is an article on Barrow upon Humber in the Jan 1990 edition of Lincolnshire Life – viewable here
Here is the ‘cross base’ in Barrow churchyard – listed as the Harrison sundial – although the listing does query whether elements of it were derived from a medieval cross